Day Four: The Straw that Broke the Camel’s Back

I know I say this every time, but I love project days. I have a sense of anticipation since I really have no idea what students are going to bring in. The difficult part with 26 students is to make sure we have enough time to explore all of the projects. As much as I want to ask questions about each one after they are presented the reality of an hour and 20 minute class is that we would inevitably run out of time. Plus I do like to leave a bit of room at the end to discuss the pieces as a lead in to the following class.

The range of solutions and of material were great. Some objects, some human movement, some computer or media based, some performative, some sound oriented, some fluid. With 26 people from all disciplines on campus we are bound to get variety. The hard part as we move though the term is how to keep that variety moving and not settle into habitual approaches. As part of the exposition of the class we saw a lot of material that can be used for later discussion. I know that we will return again and again to the idea of a system – so this is a good place to start the term. What I always find interesting is connections between the projects – where they overlap or seem similar and when they pull away and seem unique.

The projects are interesting mainly because I see them as a means to an end and not an end in themselves. It is important to execute the project to engage with the thought process. I did mention that I think projects that are actually executed rather than hypothetical or ones that are created by the students and not a solution brought in from another source tend to offer a greater return for the student. So my interest in discussing the projects is to talk a bit about how the problem was solved. What choices were made, how did one solution compare to another, how did they differ. Beyond that having solved the problem the student then has a better grasp of these ideas in dealing with the readings.

For this particular project I was interested in the notion of balance somehow disrupted. One of the great comments made as we talked about them is how the projects “produced” something, went through a process of change that yielded another result. Some results were messy or chaotic or broken or changed, but they all moved through time (and space). This was a great discussion point because it sets up a discussion of change, or process, of result, but not in a linear driven way. The “results” were in some cases unintended or uncontrolled. Yet they still happened. The hard part in this is not to simply dismiss these results as an after effect of the process, but a process in and of itself. When we get to the gen art stuff that link should make more sense.

So – I was – as I often am – delighted by the projects mainly because they give us tons to talk about. It will also be interesting to see which pieces we return to and which pieces fade. This is also part of the after effect of the projects.